


it holds me 'til i ache, overflow and start to break

by GalaxyGhosty



Series: The Monster's Darling [7]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Assassins & Hitmen, M/M, Mild Gore, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 02:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10233464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyGhosty/pseuds/GalaxyGhosty
Summary: AU. This was supposed to be an easy hit job, but Dark’s life has never been simple.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is the only part that Jack doesn't actively appear in. Funny, that. There is a scrapped version of this piece where he does appear, but I didn't like it so I cut it out, leaving this to be the final draft. I hope it works just as well.
> 
> I thought it'd be some ridiculous, poetic injustice for Dark to be faced with this choice--however unlikely, it did come to pass, and though Dark is a slowly changing character, he is still a very bad man because of the nature of his work. I wanted to reinstate that, I guess. 
> 
> Anyway, I'll stop babbling so you guys can read. Enjoy!
> 
> Title from "An Act of Kindness" by Bastille.

In the subsequent days that follow, he keeps an eye on Jack when he inevitably returns home. 

Dark clears Fischbach after two days, not limited to putting Jules’ technique to work. Jack insists on speaking to him shortly thereafter, and even if he were to argue with him, Jack will do what he wishes. 

He doesn’t imagine what Jack will say to Fischbach--it doesn’t serve him well to. Concerning himself with their exchange will only give him a headache, one that he isn’t in the mood to have. No matter what the end result is, Jack will come back, as he always has, as he always will. 

“Now that you’re out of La La Land,” Jules quips dryly that evening. “We’ve got a hit job. Or you do, that is. It’s a couple located north--they’ve heard a little too much, if you know what I mean. The husband’s been getting into some risky business, and is overall causing the nearby corporations some unease.” 

“Child’s play,” Dark rolls his eyes. “There must be more to it than that if they’re contacting us.”

Jules offers him a shrug. “I’m working with the information I’ve been given, as always. Anyway, they want as clean of a kill as possible. No mess, no suspicion, no way of linking it back to them.” 

“That’s the usual,” Dark reminds him. “Anything else I should know?”

His partner gives him an indiscernible look. “They are parents. Their children are all grown, however.”

“Why the hell would that be important?” Dark raises a brow. 

Jules shrugs. “I don’t know, Grim. You’re pretty soft these days. I thought it might be important for you to know, so you can prepare yourself against that.” 

If it had been anyone else who said that, Dark would’ve killed him--slow and painful with no remorse. Very few people got away with some high level backtalk, and Jules is in a whole other category with his sass and straight-forward nature. 

“It doesn’t bother me at all,” he says, and means it. Dark’s been without a family his entire life, and has never felt lacking for it. He finds families to be stupid. “Anything else actually important?” 

Jules pours over his notes, and continues to explain the mission rundown.

~~

It’s almost exhilarating, going out for a kill again. It’s been a while since Dark’s had a hit job, and Jules’ voice in his ear is almost a comfort, the guiding voice that will see him through it. Their most recent jobs have mostly been trade agreements and transfers, but hit jobs have always been Dark’s favorite. 

_“Don’t get cocky, now,”_ Jules murmurs in his ear. _“You wouldn’t want to fuck up at the worst time.”_

“They’re a couple of civilians in way over their heads,” Dark replies. “And don’t _you_ get cocky on _me_. Wouldn’t want you to fuck up at the worst time.” 

_“Shut the hell up, Grim,”_ Jules says with little heat. From his tone, he may be smiling. _“Get in, kill ‘em, and get out. I’ll take care of the cleanup.”_

As he always does. Dark does the dirty work, using his hands and his gun and his wits. Jules is the smooth talker--not equipped for that sort of thing--but he sure as hell knows how to pull strings and call favors, and most importantly, make a murder appear like it never happened. 

Dark never typically allows himself to think of the people he kills--what their lives were like before they got a hit on them--or did something to allow that hit on them. Such thoughts don’t bode well for him, and Dark imagines it would cause him to hesitate, and that could cost him his life. It’s best not to think about it. 

“This looks like a farmhouse from hell,” Dark mumbles. “Seriously. There’s a cabin and everything, with miles of open land. Are there really any neighbors around here?”

_“Close enough to be a problem,”_ Jules says. _“But you should be good to go in. I imagine this won’t be a tough job for you, given that neither of them have any sort of combat experience. I don’t know why I’m briefing you, jackass. You’re not listening and you know what to do.”_

“The briefing is helpful,” Dark yawns. “Sometimes. Now’s not one of those times. Buck up and shut up, Jules. Daddy has some people to kill.”

_“If you ever refer to yourself as Daddy again, I’m going to gouge your eyes out,”_ Jules spits. _“I hope you don’t make that poor kid call you that.”_

“I can’t make Jack do anything, really,” Dark says. “‘I’ll keep my sex life private, if that’s alright with you.”

_“Phenomenal,”_ Jules replies. _“Now get in there and make me proud, you ugly bastard.”_

~~

This was supposed to be an easy hit job, but Dark’s life has never been simple. 

After cutting the phone wires inside the house, he’d ripped the husband from the bed, tied him up and locked him in the bathroom to take care of later. As per his usual style, Dark always goes for the woman first if the situation presents itself, because women usually scream louder, causing more disruption. 

But as he pins this woman to the bed at gunpoint, her eyes look too familiar, and his finger twitches on the trigger, but he can’t pull it. 

_“Grim, what’s going on?”_ Jules’ voice is static in his ear. _“Did something go wrong?”_

Dark has never once in his life hesitated on killing someone. This woman has such fear in her eyes, but that’s not what’s bothering him. He couldn’t give less of a shit that she’s scared and wants to beg for her life--it’s her eyes. Her bright blue eyes. 

It can’t be true, he knows it isn’t, but he hisses out, sharp and cold, “Do you have a son?” 

He _never_ speaks to his victims, because it never serves any purpose. They don’t ever have intel he doesn't already knows. They don’t ever do anything except for plead with him. But he can’t help it. 

_“The hell are you doing?”_ Jules snaps. _“Grim!”_

Dark ignores him. The woman stares at him, uncertain. “I-I have two daughters. My son, I don’t…”

“You gave him up,” Dark seethes. He doesn’t know why. It’s not her. The chances of him having a hit on Jack’s absent mother is astronomically slim. “You abandoned him to a life in the foster system. What name did you leave him?”

She looks horribly confused, and to be fair, Dark is too. He’s not sure what the purpose behind all of these questions is, and he should stop asking. 

“I didn’t get to leave him a name,” she whispers, finally, as though she’s recalling all of this from a dormant part of her mind. “My first husband and I divorced. He took him from me when he was just a baby. I’ve spent the last years of my life looking for him. How do you know my son? Is he well? Is he alright?” 

“What would you have called him?” Dark’s voice doesn’t soften, but the demeanor does. Something ugly churns inside of him, because he knows he’s going to kill her, he has to, especially with Jules shrieking in his ear. 

This question calms the woman nonetheless. Perhaps she thinks answering these questions will spare her life and her husband’s. But it won’t. It just satisfies Dark’s curiosity. “Sean. I would’ve named him Sean. Please, sir--please, is my son well?”

She says this with such fondness, such love and adoration. She loves Jack even though she’s never met him, as all people who meet him do. After all this time, over twenty years, she’s looked for him, and she’s loved him as a mother should. 

But thinking this, something yet again twists within him. Dark could let her live. Dark could bring her to Jack and he would love her just the same, completely enamored with a mother figure he was never allowed to have. He would fawn over her, cry into her shoulder, tell her about Fischbach and himself and all of his life up until this point, and she would listen to every word. She would tell him to leave, that Dark isn’t good, Dark is a bad man. To make up with Fischbach. 

She could make Jack leave. He would listen. He would do it. 

_No. No._

“I’ll take care of him,” Dark says, perhaps to himself. Her eyes widen. “His name is Jack.” 

He pulls the trigger, and with a resounding click, the bullet fires, and she crumples. 

_“Grim?”_

“One down,” Dark murmurs, staring down at her lifeless body. Jack’s mother. _God, Jack’s mother_. “One to go.”

He heads towards the bathroom to finish the job. 

~~

_“You gonna talk to me?”_ Jules asks as Dark drives back. _“I lost you back there.”_

“You didn’t lose shit,” Dark snips. “The job’s done, your cleanup crew is on the way. We’re in perfect shape.”

Jules scoffs. It’s such a haughty sound. _“That conversation you had would say otherwise. I heard what you said, you know.”_

“Shut up,” he strongly considers ripping his earpiece out. “I’m done talking, Jules.”

_“That kid is messing with you,”_ Jules says, and doesn’t Dark already know that? _“I’ve never once seen you hesitate on a kill. Never, Grim.”_

Dark grinds his teeth, and chooses not to answer. Instead, he focuses on driving. 

_“You can’t ignore me,”_ Jules rumbles in his ear. _“Even if you take your earpiece out, I’ll ask you the same shit when you’re back. I know this kid means more to you than you’re letting on. Do you think I’m stupid?”_

“What Jack is to me doesn’t concern you,” Dark replies. “I don’t get involved in your personal life. Stop getting into mine.” 

_“It concerns me because he’s obstructing you from doing your job, and I’m here to make sure you do your fucking job,”_ Jules spits back. _“Maybe once you admit it, he’ll stop distracting the shit out of you so we can take the proper protocol.”_

Dark rolls his eyes. Putting a cigarette into his mouth, he cracks the window, fishing the lighter out of the car’s console. He lights it, and takes a deep inhale. “There’s no protocol for this, Jules. Cut the shit.” 

_“All I’m saying,”_ Jules finally breathes. _“Is that once you admit he’s damn near your entire world, you’ll stop being so fucking insecure.”_

He breathes out a puff of smoke. “Thanks, mom. I appreciate the self-esteem boost.” 

_“You’re unbelievable,”_ Jules sighs. _“You don’t pay me enough to be your mother, anyway, bitch.”_

Dark pulls the earpiece out of his ear, then, and tosses it out the window.

How the hell is he supposed to look Jack in the eye, after all this? How is he supposed to look at him, listen to him cry and miss his absent family, knowing that he killed her, killed the person who gave him life? The boy’s never had a family. Jack had been in the foster system from the age of twelve onward, but in the years before that, he’d lived with an estranged uncle who died prematurely due to drug overdose. Jack doesn’t remember much of that decade, but he had known his father as well as his mother. Not at all. Any semblance of family he’s ever had has gone away. He aged out of the system--was never adopted. 

God. _God._

The whip of the wind accompanies him on his way back, and it feels like something bitter.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for all the love this series gets--seriously, it is so overwhelmingly amazing, and I'm so happy you guys love this series as much as I love writing it. I always love hearing from you guys <3 
> 
> Come visit me over at galaxyghosty.tumblr.com! :D


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